Plastics made crate for bottles

ABSTRACT

A plastics crate having converging opposite side walls and diverging corner parts connecting the side walls. The inner circumference of the crate in a plane parallel to the bottom is at least not decreased from the entire height of the crate.

D United States Patent 11 1 1 11 Steenbergen 1 July 1, 1975 [54] PLASTICS MADE CRATE FOR BOTTLES 2,775,364 l2/l956 lnden 220/97 R 3,307,729 3/l967 Schwartz 220/97 R [761 Sleenbergen, 15113 3,353,703 11/1967 Bartoo et al. 220/21 Arkelsiraai, Hardenberg, 3,485,434 l2/l969 Donovan et al. 220/74 Netherlands 2 F d: M 4, 1972 2] [1e ay Primary Examiner-William 1. Price [2i] Appl. No.: 250,242 Assistant Examiner-Steven M. Pollard Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Stephen E. Feldman [30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 5, l97l Netherlands u 7l06l2l [57] ABSTRACT [52] US. Cl. 220/21; 220/72; 220/74;

206/203 A plastics crate having converging opposite side walls [5 I] hit. Cl 865d U24 d di i comer parts Connecting the Side wa"5 [58] Fleld of Search 220/97 l DIG The inner circumference of the crate in a plane paral- 220/21 66, 74? 206/203 201 lel to the bottom is at least not decreased from the entire height of the crate. [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 2,644,443 7/1953 Barnsteiner 220/72 illli 12 1 PLASTICS MADE CRATE FOR BOTTLES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION My invention relates to a plastics made crate, divided into sections for packing bottles of which at least the side walls are provided with edges at their upper ends and its interior is divided into sections for bottles.

Such crates for bottles filled with drinks in which the upright walls at their ends on the upper side of the crate, or in the vicinity thereof, are provided with bent over edges are commonly known. On account of these protruding edges the upright walls should necessarily also be provided with protruding edges at or in the proximity of the location whereat they merge into the bottom of the crate, since in order to obtain a proper interrelation those crates when disposed on pallets should perfectly adjoin each other both at the upper and the lower end of the side walls.

Such protruding lower edges provided at the lower end of the upright walls, in the vicinity of the bottom of the crate, give in practice. however, rise to many difficulties. So it often occurs that the protruding lower edge is caught under the bottom of a crate so that the desired correct placement of the crate is not obtained.

Another drawback is that by the presence of the protruding edges at the upperand lower end of the upright walls, the curcumference of the crate is larger than that of the crate proper without edge. Particularly when such crates are disposed on standard pallets, this gives rise to difficulties and expensive provisions are required to overcome this trouble.

Another drawback is in that for space saving reasons the upper edges and lower edges are selected as small as possible in order to loose as little space as is possible between two adjacent crates.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION it could, however, be desirable to have the disposal of plastics made crates of the aforementioned type which have not the drawbacks referred to above and wherein particularly at the upper end a very broad edge is obtained, by which such crates can be caught without enlarging the surface occupied by the known crates.

This object is attained according to the invention by the arrangemennt that two opposite upright side walls of the crate are disposed in such a way that their upper parts converge with respect to one the other.

Due to the converging provision of two opposite upright walls one achieves that, without increasing the circumference of the plastics made crate, a very broad upper edge can be provided by which such crates can be caught.

The upright walls converge advantageously two and two through the same angle. while the adjoining upright walls of the crate merge into each other by an angular bridge part which is at least perpendicular to the bottom.

In this way such a crate can be more easily removed from the die than in case all walls of the crate, the corner-bridge parts included would converge inwards. When namely all sides converge, the corneobridge parts included, such a moulded crate can only diffl cultly be removed from the die.

Due to the application ofthe bridge parts, perpendicular to the bottom, these difficulties are partially obviated.

Two adjoining converging parts merge advantageously into one the other by means of a bridge part diverging outwardly with respect to the plane perpendicular to the bottom in the proximity of this corner bridge part.

The diverging arrangement of the bridge parts considerably facilitates the removal of the crates from the dies.

The converging arrangement of the upright side walls of the crate and the diverging arrangement of the corner-bridge parts between two successive upright side wall parts of the crate are selected in such a way that the total inner circumference of the crate in a plane parallel to the bottom is always constant for the entire height of the crate.

It goes without saying that the circumference can be selected slightly greater in the part where the side walls of the crate converge, but this does not offer consider able advantages since as a consequence the circumference of the crates on their outer side will increase.

It is particularly advisable that the transition of the upright walls from a position perpendicular to the bottom into the desired converging position, is effected in the upper half and preferably in the upper third part of an upright side wall of the crate, as in that part there are no bottles.

The invention is clarified with reference to the drawing in which an embodiment is represented.

SURVEY OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view of a plastics made crate for bottles according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a section through such a crate on the line II-lI in which a converging upright part and a non deformed lower part of a side wall of the crate are represented',

FIG. 3 is a section through a plastics made crate according to FIG. 1 on the line Ill-ill in which a corner bridge part diverging in the upper part of the crate is represented, and

FIG. 4 is a diagram in which the transition line of converging wail parts through a diverging bridge part in the corner is represented.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS in the drawing a plastics made crate l is denoted provided with a bottom 2 and upright walls 3, 4, 5 and 6.

The bottom 2 of the plastics crates consists of an arbitrary construction of rib-shaped parts 20, 2b, 2c.

These rib-shaped parts or the walls carry also longitudinal partitions 7 and transverse partitions 8, so that compartments 9 to accommodate bottles are formed.

The lower parts 3a, 4a, 5a and 6a of the opposite upright side walls 4 and 6, 3 and 5, respectively of the crate, connected with the bottom 2, are perpendicular to this bottom. At about two thirds of the height of the upright side walls of the crate the resting side wall parts 3b, 4b, 5b and 6b converge in an upward direction. At their free upper end they merge into outwards bent over edges 10, ll, 12 and 13 serving to facilitate the handling of the crates.

The circumferential edges 10a, lia, 12a, and 13a of the crates are selected in such a way that these edges end approximately in the plane perpendicular to the bottom 2 of the crate and through the non-deformed upright wall parts with reinforcing ribs 15 eventually provided thereon.

Due to the converging arrangement of the upper parts of the side walls 3b, 4b, 5b, 6 and 6b of the crate the unmolding of the same may be attended with difficulties or at least be less easily carried out. Although in practice it is possible to remove such a crate in still warm condition from the die and keep it in the desired shape by subsequent fast cooling, it is advisable to provide the bridge parts situated in the angular points between two successive side walls 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the crate such that they are at least perpendicular to the bottom and preferably diverging. These bridge parts are denoted by 14b.

The divergence of the bridge parts 14 and the convergence of the upper parts of the side walls 3b, 4b, 5b and 6b of the crate are selected in such a way that the circumference in a plane parallel to the bottom is almost always constant. This circumference may, however, also be slightly larger, but in that case the bridge parts should diverge outwards to such an extent that the advantages peculiar to the invention are lost.

The height for which the side wall parts 3b, 4b, 5b and 6b converge should on the one hand not be selected too great, since this gives rise to difiiculties on unmolding but neither too small on the other hand, as in that case the wall should be too much twisted on merging into the corner bridge parts 14b. The bridge part is at any rate situated in the upper half of the side walls of the crate and preferably in the upper third part in which is no bottle when the crate is filled.

It is finally advisable (see FIG. 4) to choose the radius of curvature R, of the lower part 140 of the bridge part 14 in the comer as large as possible. This can be easily realized since in the comers the compartments 9 can 0e easily rounded off on the outer side without substantial loss of space in the section for the bottle. On the other hand it is advisable to choose the radius of curvature R in the diverging upper part 14b of the bridge part as small as possible. There are no objections against this since in this part are only the bottle necks.

When a small radius of curvature R is applied, a maximal unmolding angle is obtained in the diverging part 14b at a particular divergence which results in a faster compensation of the anti-unmolding angle (owing to the convergent parts of the side walls of the crate) when the crate is pulled from the die.

In order to obtain an easy removal the length of the line ABCD, that is to say the width of the corner bridge part 14a connecting the non-deformed lower parts of two successive side walls of the crate or the transition line between converging and non converging parts of the side walls of the crate is equal to the line EFG which determines the width of the corner bridge part 14b between two successive converging parts 41; and 5b of the side walls 4 and 5 of the crate.

It is obvious that one has the disposal of broad edges, delimited by the line AKD, by which the crate can be seized so that whilst retaining almost the normal surface of the bottom a crate can be obtained with broad edges without enlarging the space occupied by the former. The edges by which the crate can be caught are denoted by 15. The length and the width of the bottom are consequently almost as large as the greatest distances in length and width of the generatrix of the upper surface of the crate. The edges at the upper ends of the side walls constitute almost a rectangle.

What I claim is:

l. A plastic crate for bottles comprising a bottom first upright side walls projecting from two opposite edges of said bottom and having upper ends which converge towards each other second upright side walls, projecting from two other opposite edges of said bottom, and having upper ends which converge towards each other corner bridge parts which interconnect adjacent first and second side walls, said bridge parts diverging outwardly,

said side walls and bridge parts arranged so that the circumference of the crate in any plane parallel to the bottom is at least the same as the circumference at the bottom.

2. The crate of claim 1 wherein the circumference is constant.

3. The crate of claim 2 wherein the side walls have lower non-converging parts and the radius of curvature of the corner bridge parts is greater adjacent the upper part of the side walls and smaller where the side walls are nonconverging.

4. The crate of claim 3 wherein the transition of the upright side walls from nonconverging to converging occurs in at least the upper half of the said first and second walls.

5. The crate of claim 4 including longitudinal and transverse partitions positioned to divide the interior or the container and wherein the convergence of the side walls occurs above the upper end of the longitudinal and transverse partitions.

1! i i I 

1. A plastic crate for bottles comprising a bottom first upright side walls projecting from two opposite edges of said bottom and having upper ends which converge towards each other second upright side walls, projecting from two other opposite edges of said bottom, and having upper ends which converge towards each other corner bridge parts which interconnect adjacent first and second side walls, said bridge parts diverging outwardly, said side walls and bridge parts arranged so that the circumference of the crate in any plane parallel to the bottom is at least the same as the circumference at the bottom.
 2. The crate of claim 1 wherein the circumference is constant.
 3. The crate of claim 2 wherein the side walls have lower non-converging parts and the radius of curvature of the corner bridge parts is greater adjacent the upper part of the side walls and smaller where the side walls are nonconverging.
 4. The crate of claim 3 wherein the transition of the upright side walls from nonconverging to converging occurs in at least the upper half of the Said first and second walls.
 5. The crate of claim 4 including longitudinal and transverse partitions positioned to divide the interior or the container and wherein the convergence of the side walls occurs above the upper end of the longitudinal and transverse partitions. 